Best Bitcoin Exchange for Australia
Australia could receive its own cryptobank within the next 18 months. That is at least the plan of Fred Schebesta, one of the country’s youngest self-made millionaires. The new bank would be the first of its kind for the Australian continent.
While heated discussions about the ups and downs of Bitcoin and its associates continue in Germany, it is easier to keep a cool head in the southern hemisphere. Fred Schebesta, a 26-year-old entrepreneurial talent and co-founder of the comparison portal Finder.com, is not impressed by the much-quoted talk of a “crypto bubble”:
“People were talking about a bubble when the Bitcoin rate was 10 US dollars, 100 US dollars, 1,000 US dollars. After the $100 mark, it fell to about $12, which is significantly lower than its fall from $20,000 to $6,000,
Schebesta told the Australian news website news.com.au. His crypto-optmism is reflected in a new “billion dollar project”: he wants to found Australia’s first cryptobank.
Interest is booming
Just because the Bitcoin course has fallen after its record high and people have been upset is not to be confused with a dwindling interest in crypto currencies. Quite the opposite:
“Interest is booming. I was at Consensus in New York, along with 8,000 others. New technologies are being developed, it’s like the transition from Basic to DOS. Bitcoin is like gold, it will just lie around, do its thing and keep running. I don’t think Bitcoin is going to die.”
As adaptation grows, so does the demand for financial services for crypto currency owners, Schebesta continues. To move one step closer to his vision of an Australian cryptobank, Schebesta says he has bought “significant” shares in the Western Australian bank Goldfields Money. As an “Authorised Deposit taking Institution” (ADI), the bank is subject to the Australian financial supervisory authority APRA. By working with Goldfields, Schebesta intends to avoid having to apply to APRA for its own ADI licence. That the bank, with a market capitalisation of 35 million Australian dollars, is one of the small fish – a gift:
“It’s a small business, but a bank – and the only bank in Western Australia with an ADI license,
Schebesta continues. In addition, the example of Deutsche Bank shows that size and profit do not always have to be in proportion to each other:
“Deutsche Bank has 98,720 employees. It made a profit of 146 million US dollars in the first quarter. Binance, on the other hand, had 300 employees and made a profit of USD 200 million in the same period. Something is going on here.”
Schebesta is focusing primarily on the potential crypto-credit business. After all, lending money is the backbone of the fiat economy. Loans for crypto currencies would take them “to a whole new level”.
No newcomer in cryptospace
Schebesta had his fingers in the digital money business even before the announcement of plans for a cryptobank. The portal finder.com, founded by him and Frank Restuccia, also makes it possible to compare crypto currencies. In addition, together with his colleague Restuccia, he operates his own crypto exchange called HiveEx, whose weekly transaction volume is expected to be in the million dollar range. With HiveSpend, a service for the settlement of BPAY invoices followed.
Schebesta relies on his entrepreneurial instinct for his new project, which has also made finder.com a success:
“The comparison was not a big deal because the Australians didn’t really compare. But I bet that would change and invested a lot. In the case of crypto currencies, I assume that people have their own currency and want to hedge against fiat currencies.”
Australia regulates crypto taxation with law
Previously, double VAT was payable on the purchase and sale of crypto currencies in Australia. In the run-up to a bill by the Australian government, this obstacle to crypto trading is now to be lifted.
We had already reported in May that the Australian government was planning to lower the tax hurdle. Now activity seems to be coming into this attempt. In a statement with the promising title “Removing the double taxation of digital currency”, the Turnbull government advocates keeping the promise made for the 2017/18 budget. This action is expected to be a further step in the direction of making Australia a global FinTech centre.
- An elementary part of the new law is the provision that Australians will in future only have to pay a tax on trading in crypto currencies. The VAT, which previously had to be paid when a digital currency was purchased, will now no longer apply.
- This means that crypto currencies are now taxed in the same way as physical money. The new taxation regulation will apply retroactively from 1 July 2017 and is thus in line with the government’s announcements in the course of the 2017/18 budget.
- The new law aims to make it easier for citizens to acquire new innovative digital currencies. It is also intended to stimulate the crypto business in Australia, where the government sees the opportunity to create jobs and salaries.
To this end, the Turnbull government will continue to work closely with Australia’s FinTech industry to create a working environment that is both internationally competitive and will play a central role in the long-term transformation of the national economy.